|
1. Red Bull
Best car, best driver, best tactics, best results, win after win after win. Just as impossible not to rate #1 as Vettel. Will be favourites in 2014, still. As dominant as the early 2000s Ferrari superteam.
2. Lotus
In competitive terms probably Red Bull's closest rival, but financially screwed. Another great, sleek and beautiful car, another win, podiums racked up all season and the emergence of Grosjean, tactically astute too. If thy had the money to employ a great driver they'd be looking brilliant. Instead, Pastor. Yey.
3. Mercedes
Hugely improved, able to keep the pace up through races and staying competitive all season, with two good drivers battling at the front. Look like a team going places but leadership question was an odd subplot.
4. Sauber
Started really slowly but grew back into another team massively overachieving based on their resources, with a very neat car, good development over the season and great drives from Hulkenberg, arguably an equal to Ferrari by the end. I'd probably have rated them #1 or 2 last season though. Such a shame they've taken such a step back on drivers though for 2014.
5. Force India
Pretty much on a par with Sauber, started the season much stronger and were screwed over by the change to the tyres mid season really, falling off the pace. They scored some good points throughout, juggled two competitive drivers and made the most of point scoring opportunities, rate them below Sauber because probably overall less heroics.
6. Ferrari
almost as disappointing as McLaren. The only reason they scored so heavily was Alonso and even he was nowhere near as strong at times, after dragging an inferior car nearly to the title in 2012 it seemed he just couldn't repeat those heroics. The car was quick enough at the start of the season but was shown up as other teams developed initially troublesome cars into much more competitive ones and they never came close to a win in the second half. Massa occasionally impressive over a single lap, Alonso occasionally dragging it way above its station in races but overall a massive disappointment given their resources.
7. McLaren
Crap. You can always rely on McLaren to produce a dog of a car just when you least expect it. Losing Hamilton didn't help but the car just never progressed beyond a solid lower end points scorer and the drivers weren't able to come up with any special Bottas or Ricciardo type laps, any stunning performances, anything really, just a really middling and drab season of scraping points finishes from a team who should have done massively better. Lack of inspiration everywhere, from the drivers up.
8. Toro Rosso
Some great qualifying performances and generally higher peaks than 2012, with some great moments like Vergne's often overlooked performance in Canada where he was virtually a frontrunner all weekend. Ricciardo often qualified really well and although the points total doesn't reflect much progress from 2012, the team did what they set out to do in that they gave the drivers the chance to shine on their day. Always a Q3 threat, arguably more so than Force India even.
9. Williams
Terrible season from a team with a McLaren-esque ability to stun everyone with a dog of a car just when things look on the up. The pace just wasn't there at all most of the season and when things did improve late on scored a few points in Austin. That's all you can say really, generally crap.
10. Marussia
Got tenth. Got nowhere near a point and trailed Williams massively even when they were at their least competitive. Bianchi impressed, as much as he could in a car so far off the pace. That's all there is to say really. Well done on getting tenth, now work on being a competitive F1 team, please. It's been four years.
11. Caterham
Like Marussia, only green.
|